Originally Posted by
SoCalGuy
"Apples v Oranges"
The topic of picking up OT is completely different when you have pilots on the street, versus an airline who does not. Weren't all of DAL's once furloughed offered their recall (regardless if they took it or not - some still out on their own choice of by-pass)??? Not so much at CAL.....not one of the 147 has been offered the 'sentence of reinstatement'.
When your staff is 'all in', call OT what you want.....when you still have pilots on the street, and other active pilots see fit to pick up OT.....that's just dead wrong/black-n-white without justification.
Sorry for the drift....
Not really apples/oranges, but I completely understand what you are saying. I don't know what the deal is at CAL, but at DAL, if a trip is in open time, and no one takes it, it is inverse assigned... and it goes out at premium pay. This argument has been around this maypole ad nauseum at DAL, and I still maintain that unless ALL pilots are "penalized" for taking those trips... at least NOT REWARDED with premium pay, there is a propensity to dump on the senior guys for exercising those same contractual rights. It is a highly charged emotional issue. IF... there is empirical proof that senior guys taking those trips keep guys out on the street, I'm with you. You would need to show a lot of cancelled flights due to crew staffing. BUT... since this argument is mostly if not exclusively conjecture, I side with those exercising contractual rights. That includes those junior in each and every category that answer the phone to take those trips at assignment pay. Maybe.. what needs to happen is that when guys are furloughed.. NONE.. ZERO.. NUNCA... NOT ONE single trip is paid at anything other than straight pay.